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FLAT CHAT A BLOG
I went jogging yesterday, trackies, tube top and little else to flaunt my abs, and returned on a limp. Age! How fast it strikes. But perhaps I could delight in another excuse: a hectic month it has been, during which I made a debut on Amazon Shorts (The Hybrid ) about the same time that two new novels, Impact & The Sex Bunyip hit stores worldwide. All three publications have received noteworthy reviews:
 THE HYBRID establishes Eugen M. Bacon as a powerful voice in science fiction and fantasy. The story lingers long after the reading is done. THE SEX BUNYIP is... an incredible journey. The story weaves from an Aboriginal Chronicle, perhaps fictional, into something epic, almost unsettling. The writing is brave and independent. Fascinating. (Barnes & Noble)
What a journey! The Sex Bunyip is fierce, human, gruesome and mystical all at once. This chronicle shapes into an epic. The ending, when it happens, takes you entirely by surprise and leaves you brooding over the story, start to finish. (Amazon)
 IMPACT is a compelling work of fiction. Eugen Bacon's writing is intense, utterly convincing and, before you know it, tosses you to a sharp finish. (Barnes & Noble)
A fine fantasy, crime and science fiction anthology to remember. (Amazon)
WHAT’S NEW
THE HYBRID\ THE SEX BUNYIP\ IMPACT
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TWISTED TAILS Twists Tales Out of World’s Most Twisted Writers still out there on cyber and paperback.
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COMING SOON ! SOON! SOON!
THE FIREMAKER: A HYBRID STORY
MIRROR IN A BLADE (paperback & ebook)
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Electronic versions of my eBooks are also available from Double Dragon Publishing and Fictionwise (links below). And don't forget to rate me! I'd love to know what you most enjoy...
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Russian Roulette
I keep an electronic word database with no manner or definitive purpose other than a sheer collection of beautiful words, phrases I’d like to re-visit at some point. My newest is ‘a sea of grass’. A couple of months ago, I trawled through the random assortment and picked five phrases: Night grew silent; armageddon; Phoenix; played alone; full of shadows. I was determined to write a short story on each of the phrases. I knew where I wanted to go with the night, had an inkling of shadows but was utterly stumped with Phoenix. Research unveiled an ancient mythology of a bird that re-incarnated itself every 500 years in a burst of flames to emerge anew. Finally, ah finally! – I had my stories:
Available from: http://www.fictionwise.com/eBooks/EugenMBaconeBooks.htm
All five are also included in IMPACT, a paperback anthology so close to press, I can almost smell its ink.
Now I have three new phrases: Boneless; dizzying heights; a spot of bother. I don’t know whether they’ll make fine tales or in what genre. But if they get published, then we’ll know, won’t we!
Resolutions....
After a stint on chocolate Easter eggs, I must retrieve that six-pack from - not my abs - the garage.
Recently, I went for a haircut. Always a barber for me, never a hairdresser.
“How do you want it?” he asked.
“Ah, usual,” I waved carelessly into the air, leant forward and thumbed through a pile of magazines. I settled for TASTING NOTES, a glossy on the popular segments of wine. Ensconced in the chair, I read of a sparkly Shiraz that was wildly aromatic and sizzled a refined nose of cinnamon, earth and black berry. Barber regarded me with disinfected clippers, brow furrowed. "Go on then. Do your thing," I said with a smile.
He did.
Now I have a twinkling cranium with a Yiddish yarmulka of kinky hair at the summit, too short to qualify a Mohican. And I do get the odd stares. Sometimes appreciative, a trickle of mild amusement but mostly bewilderment.
WHATS NEW: TWISTED TAILS
An Anthology of skewed vision from a range of new and ancient talent, compiled by an equally warped author, J.Richard Jacobs. Includes Peter Prellwitz, several times EPPIE finalist; Steve Lazarowitz, another EPPIE finalist & twice winner of DREAM REALM AWARDS. Available now from www.double-dragon-ebooks.com
Coming soon! soon! soon! Amazon Shorts, exclusive!
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Jollity Corner
I was basting a piece on the story behind ‘Operation Life’, a shortie you would love to hate, when my computer gave me the finger. Beep! beep! and the fattened archive translated into a perpetual screen of death. Backup! I normally do it, but the adage goes: “The day for the monkey to die, all the trees are slippery.”
Just when I had no backup, the old sod did bugger all.
I can chuckle not from the temperamental darling but about my first royalty check from a traditional publisher I dared sign up with. Yep, royalty paying, the full works. At first I had qualms about them, having received ardent warnings not to touch them with the tip of a broomstick. Why? Well! They had a knack of attracting negative press more than anything known. Society of Authors vetted the contract and had a few suggestions, all with the same gist: shove it down the whatsit.
I weighed some scales. ‘Conglomerate’ publisher undertook all publishing costs. One up. Demanded publishing rights for 10 years. Five down. Mine was simply a collection of short stories. One up? I figured I could apply generosity in this instance and spread my work among publishers. After all, I laid goldies faster than a magic rooster, most of the eggs selling good. Technically, I had nothing to lose. For 10 years.
Partially through the contract, before book release, my sensibilities stroked the sky. I spat the dummy. But good publisher, renowned for making capital off author purchases, wouldn’t let me go. I settled for freebies, 5 review copies, other than that, I was forking out Jack.
Now this pale blue royalty check has shown at my door and, surely, I must frame it. It says: Zero Dollars And Zero Cents Void after 90 days
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